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Textiles

The 50,000 objects in the textile collections fall into two main categories: raw fibers, yarns, and fabrics, and machines, tools, and other textile technology. Shawls, coverlets, samplers, laces, linens, synthetics, and other fabrics are part of the first group, along with the 400 quilts in the National Quilt Collection. Some of the Museum's most popular artifacts, such as the Star-Spangled Banner and the gowns of the first ladies, have an obvious textile connection.

The machinery and tools include spinning wheels, sewing machines, thimbles, needlework tools, looms, and an invention that changed the course of American agriculture and society. A model of Eli Whitney's cotton gin, made by the inventor in the early 1800s, shows the workings of a machine that helped make cotton plantations profitable in the South and encouraged the spread of slavery.

Professional photographer from 1937 to 1948, much of the time as staff photographer for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) in New York City.

Summary

Approximately 500 negatives and prints from Ms. Joseph's career as staff photographer for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. There are also images taken in Mexico, and some photographs of a White House event in 1938, featuring Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and images of American workers on the home front during World War II; and a typescript biography of Katherine Joseph by her daughter, Suzanne Hertzberg.

Cite as

Katherine Joseph Papers, 1938-2002 (bulk 1941), Archives Center, National Museum of American History

For more than fifty years, Estelle Ellis (b. 1919) has advised American businesses about the changing face of American society: its demographics, its social structures, its values. She has helped these institutions understand social change and address the needs and interests of their diverse customers, audiences, and constituencies. Her work has spanned a period of significant social and economic change affecting women's lives and expectations. These shifts are apparent in her pioneering work for Seventeen, Charm, Glamour, and House & Garden magazines and, after the creation of her own firm (Business Image, Inc. in 1958) with corporate clients including the Kimberley-Clark Corporation, Evan-Picone, the Carter Hawley Hale group of department stores, Condé Nast Publications, Phillips-Van Heusen, Dow Chemical, and the Kimberly-Clark Corporation.

Summary

Client Files (including correspondence, presentations, proposals, and marketing materials) comprise the bulk of the collection. Photographic negatives, slides, and photographs from advertising campaigns and interviews with Ellis on audio and VHS cassette are also present. Ellis's personal research files on advertising and marketing, including magazine and newspaper tear sheets, are included.

The collection documents Ellis's career in publishing and as owner of Business Image, Inc. Ellis's innovative marketing and design sense is evident throughout these materials. Clients include: Carter Hawley Hale and its subsidiaries The Broadway, John Wanamaker, and Weinstock's; Condé Nast Publications and its subsidiaries Bride's, Charm, Glamour, and House & Garden; the Kimberly-Clark Corporation; and East/West Network, Incorporated.

Among the distinctive materials in the collection are promotional items developed for Seventeen and Charm magazines. Designed to be informative and eye-catching, these materials used creative techniques to highlight to potential advertisers the uniquely female qualities and concerns of the magazines' readers.

H. Joseph Gerber, an Austrian immigrant, was an inventor and entrepreneur who had over 400 patents and received the Presidential National Medal of Technology. By the time of his death in 1996 he owned four companies including Gerber Sign Products and Gerber Scientific.

Summary

The collection documents Gerber Scientific, a company that specialized in the application of numerical control technology to various industries, particularly the apparel industry. The collection documents the manner in which the invention process develops in an industrial setting, from conception through development to production and marketing. The collection includes patent files and photographs that document the company's products. Volumnious legal files document the protection of Gerber's inventions. Printed materials include articles and clippings; trade literature; product catalogs; instruction manuals; and files on specific machine development projects.

Cite as

Gerber Scientific Instrument Company Records, 1911-1998, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

This videohistory documents the inventor, engineers, assembly workers, operators and other technicians who worked with the Gerber S-70 computer-controlled fabric cutter. It shows the Gerber Fabric Cutter in operation, with Peter Liebhold explaining. The Gerber Fabric Cutter S-70 is part of a systematic approach to layout and cutting that has revolutionized the needle trades. This video history contains original, master, and reference videos, Dictaphone microcassettes, and tape digests and notes documenting the development, operation and use of the Gerber Fabric Cutter S-70 in three locations: H.I.S., Inc., in Bruceton, Tennessee (Chic blue jeans use of cutter); General Motors in Grand Rapids, Michigan (automotive use of the cutter); and Gerber Scientific Instrument Company in Hartford, Connecticut (Gerber corporate office and invention factory). The video footage documents H. Joseph Gerber, engineers, assembly workers, operators, and other technicians who worked with the cutter at the three locations. Footage from the Tennessee and Michigan sites provides insight into the complexity of introducing a new technology into the workplace and documents operators and managers discussing the effect of the cutter on workflow, quality, personnel, and attitudes towards the job. Footage from Connecticut documents the engineers who developed the cutter and provides valuable insight into the invention process. Collection includes oral history audio tapes, original, master, and reference videos, and notes documenting Liebhold's visits to Bruceton, Tennessee, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Hartford, Connecticut.

Series 1, Notes, 1995-1996: includes documentation created by Peter Liebhold in preparation for his site visits to Bruceton, Tennessee, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Hartford, Connecticut. Includes lists of potential interviewees, questions for employees, and general notes detailing observations at each site. The H. Joseph Gerber interview file consists of a brief tape digest keyed to each of the seven microcassettes, notes from the interview, and the questions asked of Mr. Gerber. The Gerber Scientific Instrument Company file contains a video digest for only three interviews: Ed Roth, Fred Rosen, and Larry Wolfson.